Nexus Innovation Challenge - Curriculum
Your interprofessional team will identify a challenge, an opportunity, or ongoing project that requires new thinking. This longitudinal program will coach your team through the design, testing, and implementation of a solution using Design Thinking skills that are broadly useful. The flexible program includes four short modules, live team-learning sessions, individual and team consultation and coaching, time for your team to work together on your selected initiative, and an interactive presentation, feedback, and coaching session.
Elements of a successful challenge idea should include:
- Interprofessional collaboration among health professionals and/or other key stakeholders or sectors;
- Specific goal to address diversity, disparities, equity and racism;
- Intentional engagement of patients, families, caregivers, communities, populations; and
- Support of leaders within the organization committed to working toward galvanizing systemic change.
As part of the experience, all teams will be asked to define an actionable outcome for their challenge statement and share a progress report. Important considerations for the challenge idea and defined actionable outcome include:
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Importance to the team
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Actionable
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Ease of Implementation
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Patient Family Engagement
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Measurable Impact
Click on the sections below to read more about the Nexus Innovation Challenge Team-Based Learning Sessions. Teams are encouraged to attend all live events together. The live events will be recorded and archived for team members.
Program Kickoff Phase
Introduction to the Nexus Innovation Challenge: Principles of Design Thinking Modules
In an effort to immerse teams in the Design Thinking mindset, a series of four brief online modules will be shared with all team members. Teams are asked to view the modules independently – or together – and then schedule time for a team debriefing to talk about what was learned. Innovation Challenge facilitators will be available to join team debrief sessions to support the learning and reflection. The modules will explore:
- Intro to Design Thinking
- Empathy and Reframing the Challenge
- Ideation and Prototyping
- How to Pitch It
SmithGroup Coaching Session 1
The Team Leader will meet 1:1 with their SmithGroup Design Thinking Coach to make initial connections, discuss the team's challenge, and make plans for success throughout the program.
In Person Kickoff: Situating Your Innovation Challenge for Success: Key Concepts and Practical Tools
Interprofessional Practice and Education: Pursuing the Nexus in Partnership with your Clinical Learning Environment
Presented by: National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education and the National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment (NCICLE).
The Nexus Innovation Challenge is designed to support teams in solving complex challenges in their own context. This workshop is designed to introduce key concepts of interprofessional practice and education as well as guiding principles to support teams in collaborative work with their clinical learning environment partners.
National Center leaders will introduce key principles of successful Nexus (practice and education) teams, practical tools that can be used to facilitate development of a shared vision, and strategies to simultaneously work toward organizational, learning and health outcomes.
Using the Pathways to Excellence guidance, NCICLE leaders will share strategies developed to build or strengthen infrastructure and processes that optimize both learning and patient care in clinical learning environments where individuals from various professions are actively learning and working together in the context of providing patient care.
Design Thinking Part 1: Setting the Stage for Design Thinking
Presented by: SmithGroup
Before diving into solutions, it is crucial to look at the challenge from a variety of stakeholder perspectives, including those not yet considered. This three-hour workshop is intended to orient teams to the key concepts of design thinking and begin to gain insights into the challenge from a variety of perspectives. Teams will participate in the live session together, including dedicated time for teams to work on their challenge statements. It is important that all members of the team participate in the session as it is an important building block contributing to the design process. The Team Leader and a minimum of two other team members are expected to attend the in-person workshop at the Nexus Summit. Additional team members may participate virtually.
Design thinking facilitators will work with teams in large and small group settings to support learning and application of key concepts.
Setting the Stage for Design Thinking
Stakeholder Empathy
Reframing the Challenge
Share Your Challenge Statement
Wrap Up / Tee Up for Journey Mapping
Development Phase
SmithGroup Coaching Session 2
The entire team will meet together with their SmithGroup Design Thinking Coach to discuss implementing strategies learned during the Kick Off Workshop and prepare for Design Thinking Workshop 2.
National Center Coaching Session
The entire team will consult with National Center leadership to focus on the interprofessional context of their challenge.
Design Thinking Workshop 2: Ideation and Prototyping
As part of the application process, each team has identified a challenge statement that summarizes the intent and focus on their work.
All challenge statements should address interprofessional collaboration as well as one of the following topics:
- Diversity, disparities and equity or
- Patients, families, caregivers, communities, populations or
- Galvanizing systemic change
Design thinking facilitators will work with teams in large and small group settings to support learning and application of key concepts.
Intro to the Workshop
Intro to Journey Mapping
Ideation and Prototyping (Journey Mapping)
Create the Storyboard/ Developing Actionable Plan
Wrap Up /Prep for Presentation
Launching from the workshop exercise outcomes, teams will submit their detailed Design and Implementation Plans. The design and implementation plan will include a goal statement, summary, metrics and implementation timeline.
SmithGroup Coaching Session 3
The entire team will meet together with their SmithGroup Design Thinking Coach to review the team's implementation plan and prepare for the judging session.
Judging Session: Team Presentation and Feedback
Innovation Challenge teams will be invited to share their prototype solution with a panel of judges and other Innovation Challenge teams. The panel is comprised of NCICLE members, patients/individuals/consumers, and students/learners. Each team will have the opportunity to present their idea as well as listen to the ideas of other teams. Following the presentations, all teams are invited to participate in learning session with facilitators and expert judges to discussion overarching themes, as well as synthesize findings and lessons learned.
Session Outline
- Teams present in front of everyone judges and other teams
- Judging team identifies overarching themes and provides overall feedback in front of all attendees
- Written detailed feedback provided privately to each team
- Award for best proposal/presentation
Implementation Phase
NexusIPETM Learning Collaborative Sessions
Through the Implementation Phase, teams will be supported by National Center leadership with expertise in IPE implementation through two Learning Collaborative Sessions. Teams will consult together in a learning collaborative with National Center and SmithGroup leaders to share experiences, challenges, and celebrate successes as they test and refine their Challenge solutions.
Innovation Challenge Final Team Presentations
All teams will participate in the Final Team Presentations. Teams will be asked to share updates on their progress toward their defined actionable plan and measurable outcome following a four-month implementation period.